CANADA: Calgary City Council has scaled back plans for the first phase of its Green Line light rail project, blaming ‘the cost inflation that is impacting all major infrastructure projects across North America’.
The change follows work to reduce costs through value engineering, design optimisation and negotiations with the contractor during the development phase. The project cost is now estimated at C$6·248bn, up from the budget of C$5·543bn approved in 2020. The increase is to be covered by the city.
The core section of the Green Line will still be built from Lynnwood/Millican in the southeast to Eau Claire in the city centre, connecting with the existing Red and Blue lines. The southern end of Phase 1 from Lynwood to Shepard would only proceed once additional funding is in place, as would planned future extensions to north and south.
Construction of the Centre Street S stop has been deferred, while the planned station at 4 Street SE will be built on the surface rather than underground.
In April 2023 the Bow Transit Connectors consortium of Barnard Constructors, Flatiron Constructors, WSP Canada and financial adviser EllisDon Capital was selected as development partner for the Green Line. The initial contract covered the development phase where costs, risks and the overall schedule would be negotiated, and was due to be followed by a project agreement for the main works to be undertaken under a design build and finance contract. This second stage will now to be replaced by separate contracts for individually negotiated scopes of work, which is expected to save C$600m.
The project agreements are expected to be signed and main construction to begin later this year.
Announcing the revised plan on July 30, the city said its strategy for phased construction ‘makes even more sense now with cost pressures on all infrastructure projects along with the financial constraints and competing priorities of our funding partners’, adding that ‘it never gets cheaper to build major infrastructure projects’.
